Corsica Hockey is one of the best advanced stats websites on the web. They’ve produced a metric that combines stats like Game Score, WAR, and others to make for what they call the “best single number representation of a player’s quality.”
727 NHL players were ranked with 24 Golden Knights making the cut. The top five are Connor McDavid, Sidney Crosby, Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand, and Alex Ovechkin.
The Golden Knights have four players in the top 100 including Jonathan Marchessault (#17/#6LW), Marc-Andre Fleury (#48/#4G), William Karlsson (#54/#18C), and Reilly Smith (#64/#9RW).
The top-rated defenseman for Vegas is Colin Miller coming in at #136 followed by Nate Schmidt and Shea Theodore tied at #153.
The next highest Golden Knights after the first line is Paul Stastny at #145. Erik Haula (#214), Alex Tuch (#232), and Tomas Tatar (#313) all rank outside of the top 200.
Malcolm Subban (#726) is the second to last player in the entire rankings ahead of just Blackhawks goalie Anton Forsberg.
Newly acquired Curtis McKenzie came in at #276, the 11th highest ranked Golden Knight. Daniel Carr (#556) also ranks above five Golden Knights skaters, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare (#567), Cody Eakin (#608), Jon Merrill (#618), Ryan Reaves (#628), and William Carrier (#652). The other new player, Nick Holden, tied Deryk Engelland at #356.
For those still waiting on the blockbuster Erik Karlsson trade, the Swedish defenseman came in at #25, the third-rated defenseman behind Brent Burns and Kris Letang. Oh, and the disaster that is Bobby Ryan ranked #295, which would be good for 12th place on the Golden Knights.
Jason Fox
Where does analytics fall in the make of a team. I know baseball and basketball have embraced it and it also completely changed how both games are played now. Can hockey analytics change the game styles and strategies moving forward? July hockey sucks! Is it October yet
Mike
And Perron was #61…slightly below Wild Bill and just better than Smith. Let that sink in a little for those who think we have a top 5 line in all of hockey (which I think we do). Still don’t understand why Reeves gets the deal he does and we let DP walk from $1m+ more per year. Lives Reeves a lot but we have plenty of depth players. And I am tired of hearing about “term”. DP signed a 4 year deal with STL. Worst case he is an average 3rd liner 4 years from now that you are slightly overpaying. Best case he is still a steal at $4m/year.
RJ
You’re tired of hearing about “term” because it is the right answer. I like DP and Reeves as well, but I think McPhee has earned some benefit of the doubt.
PhiSig150
Expand on term please? I keep seeing it thrown around a lot regarding VGK. Perron and Neal signed reasonable 4 and 5 year deals. Both are 30. Will McPhee not extend a guy at 30 beyond 3 years? Why did 32 year old Stastny get 3 years at a higher AAV that either Neal and Perron? Will McPhee not go beyond 3 years unless you’re under 30 then it’s ok to give 27 year old Marchessault a 6 year deal at 5 million per. He’ll turn 34 at the end of the contract. It’ll be interesting to see the length of the Karlsson potential deal.
Also what are we saving this capspace down the line for? Wild Bill will probably get paid unless we get cute and go to arb. Shea is in line for a payday at some point. Glass, Suzuki, Branstrom, Hague are years down the line. I’m having trouble seeing the big picture and why we’re so worried about cap space when we have plenty of money coming off the books in the next of couple of years.
Mike
Exactly my point. Very happy to have Stasney and I am fine with him being 35 when his contract ends. Not ideal but in today’s Cap world not horrible either. But to pass on an almost a point a game player (how many second line players did that last year…or the year before…or…) for a 4×4 deal? Because of term? Something else is going on here that no one else is talking about OR that was a very questionable decision by a team that has a shot at the cup next year.